JOIN USKarnataka crash out despite big victory
Defending champions Karnataka's Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign came to an end despite wicketkeeper CM Gautam's unbeaten ton spurring them to a massive 207-run win against Jammu and Kashmir in their final Group B fixture at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday.
Karnataka's fate wasn't purely in their hands as, apart from having to win their final game, they also needed Gujarat to lose their final match against Kerala.
Their fate was sealed as Gujarat scored a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Kerala.
In the home side's final tie, Gautam scored a composed 109 off 102 balls, in an innings studded with 10 fours and two sixes to propel his side to a mammoth 349/5 in 50 overs.
Gautam also found able allies in Manish Pandey (79) and captain R Vinay Kumar (51) and forged two substantial partnerships.
In response, Jammu and Kashmir were found wanting as their innings folded cheaply for 142 in 27.3 overs.
Jammu and Kashmir had won the toss and their decision to field backfired as Mayank Agarwal (47) and KL Rahul (22) began scoring freely without looking edgy.
The duo had compiled 47 runs by the seventh over when Rahul failed to negotiate an incoming delivery from Zahoor Sofi and was caught in front of the stumps.
In the 16th over Sofi accounted for Karun Nair who saw the woodwork disturbed after playing all over an in-swinger.
Agarwal was holding up one end and in a manner uncharacteristic of him, while he had Pandey for company.
As the pair began upping the run rate, Agarwal fell after knicking a Waseem Raza, who also had R Samarth caught and bowled, delivery to wicketkeeper Sandeep Singh.
Karnataka found themselves in a sticky situation with the score on 113/4 in the 21st over but Pandey and Gautam remained resolute and stitched a partnership of 145 in 22 overs.
Pandey fell in the 46th over as he lofted a Parvez Rasool delivery, in an attempt to clear the long on boundary, and holed out in the deep.
Blitzkrieg
In came skipper Vinay and unleashed blitzkrieg, pasting the Jammu and Kashmir attack to all parts of the ground to score 51 in just 19 balls.
At the other end, Gautam was patiently accumulating runs and got to his maiden List A ton in 98 balls.
The duo had added 91 runs of the last 6.1 overs to ensure they posted a commanding total.
With a daunting task at hand, the visitors began on a positive note but a couple of early wickets pegged them back.
With the score at 14/2 in 3.3 overs, Ian Dev Singh (35) and Bandeep Singh (42) began the rebuilding process.
They put on 78 runs in ten odd overs to keep Jammu and Kashmir's hopes alive of making a contest of it.
But the hopes shattered when Vinay made an inspired call to have S Arvind change ends and that did the trick.
In the very first ball of the 14th over, Bandeep struck a full blooded pull slightly uppishly but could not avoid J Suchith, who comfortably pouched the catch at short midwicket.
Four deliveries later, Arvind accounted for Ian Dev, who prodded at a delivery outside off stump and was caught behind.
With two set batsmen gone in the same over, the imminent collapse set in.
Suchith impressed with the ball, picking 3/26 in 7.3 overs.
score board
KARNATAKA: Mayank Agarwal c Sandeep b Raza 47 (56b, 7x4), KL Rahul lbw Sofi 22 (22b, 4x4), Karun Nair b Sofi 18 (23b, 3x4), Manish Pandey c Bandeep b Rasool 79 (70b, 5x4, 3x6), R Samarth c & b Raza 8 (8b, 1x4), CM Gautam (not out) 109 (102b, 10x4, 2x6), R Vinay Kumar (not out) 51 (20b, 3x4, 5x6). Extras (B-2, LB-9, W-3, NB-1) 15. Total (for 5 wkts, 50 overs) 349.
Fall of wickets: 1-47 (Rahul), 2-85 (Karun), 3-103 (Mayank), 4-113 (Samarth), 5-258 (Manish).
Bowling: Rohit Sharma 6-0-36-0, Asif Rasool 7-1-57-0 (w-1, nb-1), Omar Alam 6-0-51-0, Zahoor Sofi 10-0-58-2, Waseem Raza 10-0-66-2, Parvez Rasool 10-0-61-1 (w-1), Bandeep Singh 1-0-9-0 (w-1).
JAMMU AND KASHMIR: Asif Rasool c Nair b Vinay 13 (12b, 3x4), Shubham Khajuria c Gautam b Mithun 1 (9b), Bandeep c Suchith b Arvind 42 (32b, 5x4, 2x6), Ian Dev Singh c Gautam b Arvind 35 (29b, 6x4), Rasool c Nair b Vinay 14 (19b, 1x4, 1x6), Nadeem Dar c Gautam b Suchith 1 (4b), Sandeep lbw Suchith 20 (34b, 2x4), Waseem Raza st Gautam b Gopal 11 (19b, 1x4), Zahoor Sofi c Pandey b Gopal 0 (1b), Omar Alam (not out) 3 (6b), Rohit Sharma lbw Suchith 0 (1b). Extras (W-1, NB-1) 2. Total (all out, 27.3 overs) 142.
Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Asif), 2-14 (Khajuria), 3-92 (Bandeep), 4-93 (Ian Dev), 5-94 (Dar), 6-115 (Parvez), 7-130 (Raza), 8-130 (Sofi), 9-142 (Sandeep).
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 6-0-27-2 (w-1), Abhimanyu Mithun 5-0-37-1 (nb-1), Sreenath Arvind 5-0-23-2, Shreyas Gopal 4-0-29-2, J Suchith 7.3-1-26-3.